Wednesday, September 21, 2011

"Moneyball" Review

Take my review of Moneyball with a grain of salt. Its two-and-a-quarter-hour running timeprobably rivals the aggregate amount of professional baseball I've watched over the past three years – which is to say, not much. I'm not the target audience for any sports flick, but a great cast delivering an Aaron Sorkin script put me in the seats. On that level, Moneyball delivers.

Sorkin has a knack for finding the humanity in black and white statistics. It's in part what made his telling of Facebook's success story (last year's brilliant, brainy The Social Network) so remarkable. A fitting – if inferior – follow-up, Moneyball is as much about business as it is about baseball. In fact, the thesis of author Michael Lewis, upon whose book Sorkin and co-writer Steven Zaillian sculpted the screenplay, is that victory on the field can be reduced to mere mathematics.

Enter Brad Pitt as Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane. After being creamed in the playoffs, many of his star players pick up contracts with teams with deeper pockets. The truth as Beane puts it is that baseball is a fundamentally unfair game. Affluent teams can afford the best players, and subsequently win the most games and the most championships. But rather than accept the status quo, Beane hires Yale grad Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), and cooks up a way to build a team around underrated but undesirable players, like a pitcher with unorthodox form and a ex-star pushing 40.

"We're card counters now," Beane explains to his mystified staff. Moneyball plays almost like a heist – and cheating any flawed system is exhilarating to watch. The problems stem from elsewhere; the movie drags in its second half, lacking the concise narrative momentum of fiction. It's a problem from which many biopics suffer, and though Sorkin fares better than most, he doesn't have a David Fincher behind the lens this time around.

Granted, director Bennett Miller is no slouch, having made his Oscar-nominated Hollywood debut with Capote in 2005. With Moneyball, Miller faithfully photographs Sorkin and Zaillian's script, but never elevates it. Pitt and Hill are empathetic underdogs, and their performances convey admirable depth. Still, even in their best moments, it's hard not to wish that more weren't going on onscreen.

Moneyball also gets bogged down by superfluous subplots like flashbacks to Beane's fizzled pro baseball career and his relationship with his twelve-year-old daughter. The sequences give insight into the inner workings of the character's mind, but seldom feel relevant to the main thrust of the plot. Especially when they beget a string of false endings that has the audience on the edge of their seats in the worst sense of the term.

Those scenes don't sink Moneyball, but they somewhat stifle its potential for greatness. The fascinating premise, that computers can pick winners better than we can, is partially buried under content far less novel. I've seen enough strained father/daughter relationships, thanks. The film would likewise run thinner and healthier without Beane's trips down memory lane.

But it still works. Probably the best indication of the film's merit is that it appeals to viewers with no vested interest in the sport. At its finest, Moneyball is about the deconstruction of baseball romanticism, with a straightforward exchange of ideas that feels almost documentary at times. Surprisingly enough, it's the conventional storytelling devices that feel sluggish, unexciting, and repetitive. Not the baseball.

About Us

Colin George

Captain & Host

Colin graduated from film school into a world shockingly devoid of film-related jobs. He makes the best of this curious anomaly by lending his expertise to the internet. God help this poor, misguided fool.

Brian Crawford

Local Favorite

The Kremlin with gremlins named Melvin/ Who all want to be local fave/ Were sent to the grave/ For they misbehaved/ And I was given the title.

Kevin Mauer

Studio Manager

Kevin is a guy. He likes reading, writing, and reading about writing, but he HATES writing about reading. He also likes movies and is quite prone to watching films.

Jonathan Mauer

Adventurer Extraordinaire

After spending six months hiking the Appalachian Trail, normal life is dull by comparison. Jonathan wards off the dulldrums as a cash register jockey for the populous chain REI, working the third shift at QVC, and watching TV shows (that may or may not be Law and Order) while probably drinking excessive amounts of alcohol (with or without Suman). Sometimes he writes and takes pictures.

Suman Allakki

Knucklehead

Suman has inhabited six countries, is not a citizen of the US, but IS a licensed pilot. Suman can be found watching bad movies on Xbox (via Sonic's Netflix account), running marathons, drinking excessive amounts of water, and avoiding the law. Currently moving back to glorious Princeton, NJ.

Sonic Kim

Co-host (when applicable)

A pseudo student in Drexel University's Film and Video program, Francisco Sonic (yes, that's his real middle name) Kim is currently taking a hiatus from film school to, well, make films. Sometimes he says funny things.

Tyler Drown

Friend of the Show

Tyler Drown was born some time ago and learned to be cool through hard work and perseverance. One day he realized some films are more enjoyable and better made than others. In 2009 he was granted a degree in International Business and Entrepreneurship and a minor in World History & Politics. Fresh from Amman, Jordan, Tyler is now making a life for himself in New York City.

Brian Johanson

Big Apple Corespondent

Some call him haggard. Others, a demon in the sack. To some he is known as the guy watching them sleep as he mutters to himself. But most people just call him Brian.

Maggie Ruder

nth Timer

Maggie does a wicked good impression of a filmmaker. Currently she works as the Design Director of the Philadelphia Film Society/Festival, as well as doing graphic, environmental and production design for various organizations in and around Philadelphia. She enjoys free paper samples, reading in the hammock and long walks in third world countries. Maggie will be in the Philippines for the next year working for the art department of a feature film.

Sometimes she presses buttons and turns knobs when Micah isn't around. Other times she is suckered into hosting when everyone else is busy. When not dwelling on how woefully poor she is, Laura spends her time playing with her parrot, teaching herself about podcasting, and delving into the wonderful world of post sound.

Micah Haun

Master of Sound

When he isn't making sweet animations or foul comments about Apple products, Micah is commander of the Almighty Firepod, keeping voices from peaking, volume from rising, and our love of films from getting just a little bit TOO loud.